Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue in intro music**
Today's Hitchcock movie review is Foreign Correspondent (1940) where on the eve of World War II, an American reporter, John Jones, is sent to Europe to provide accurate and real facts surrounding a supposed treaty agreed by two European nations. Jones meets and interviews with a famous diplomat, Mr Van Meer, hoping to find the truth of a possible declaration of war between the Allied nations and Germany. Soon Jones finds out there are enemy agents operating in London who are trying to stall peace efforts. This movie is a modest spy thriller which fails to capture the thrills while there is an action or suspense scene. This is due to the ongoing imbalance of suspense and comedic romance which sometimes results into a weird lovey dovey romance. For example, the two protagonists, Jones and Carol Fisher fall in love straight away with both agreeing to be married. Now this may happen in any film, however this theme over shadows the concept of the movie which is how corrupt politicians engage with propaganda in order to progress war and anarchy.
The umbrella sequence during the supposed assassination where the gun man runs away was technically performed really well by Hitchcock along with the car chase and the wind mill scene. However, this was squashed with the unnecessary love engagements by the two main protagonists. Another example is when Jones climbs out the window from his hotel room and into Carol Fisher's room where they have an awkward scene about each other's feelings. There are cool cliched moments and great lines by both protagonist and antagonist including "I'll keep after it until either I get it or it gets me" and "combine a mad love for country and an equally mad indifference to life", which sums up the motives and drive of each character who are found on the different spectrum in the film. There is a plane crash scene at the end which turns the film into a survival mode along with the filmmaker killing off innocent average people. This not only makes this section of the film a survival mode but also places a dark and cruel theme. To me, the movie is really stolen by a refined English reporter, Scott Ffolliott played by George Sanders. The character's surname is strange in terms of its spelling; however Scott explains how it originated from the fact his ancestor was beheaded by Henry VIII - just as savvy and smart as he. Sanders does well with delivery a cool, calm, witty and charming character in this spy thriller. Hitchcock ends the movie with demonstrating how national duty is important by putting in a shamelessly nationalistic speech over the Star-Spangled Banner anthem, interesting. Overall 7/10
Today's Hitchcock movie review is Foreign Correspondent (1940) where on the eve of World War II, an American reporter, John Jones, is sent to Europe to provide accurate and real facts surrounding a supposed treaty agreed by two European nations. Jones meets and interviews with a famous diplomat, Mr Van Meer, hoping to find the truth of a possible declaration of war between the Allied nations and Germany. Soon Jones finds out there are enemy agents operating in London who are trying to stall peace efforts. This movie is a modest spy thriller which fails to capture the thrills while there is an action or suspense scene. This is due to the ongoing imbalance of suspense and comedic romance which sometimes results into a weird lovey dovey romance. For example, the two protagonists, Jones and Carol Fisher fall in love straight away with both agreeing to be married. Now this may happen in any film, however this theme over shadows the concept of the movie which is how corrupt politicians engage with propaganda in order to progress war and anarchy.
The umbrella sequence during the supposed assassination where the gun man runs away was technically performed really well by Hitchcock along with the car chase and the wind mill scene. However, this was squashed with the unnecessary love engagements by the two main protagonists. Another example is when Jones climbs out the window from his hotel room and into Carol Fisher's room where they have an awkward scene about each other's feelings. There are cool cliched moments and great lines by both protagonist and antagonist including "I'll keep after it until either I get it or it gets me" and "combine a mad love for country and an equally mad indifference to life", which sums up the motives and drive of each character who are found on the different spectrum in the film. There is a plane crash scene at the end which turns the film into a survival mode along with the filmmaker killing off innocent average people. This not only makes this section of the film a survival mode but also places a dark and cruel theme. To me, the movie is really stolen by a refined English reporter, Scott Ffolliott played by George Sanders. The character's surname is strange in terms of its spelling; however Scott explains how it originated from the fact his ancestor was beheaded by Henry VIII - just as savvy and smart as he. Sanders does well with delivery a cool, calm, witty and charming character in this spy thriller. Hitchcock ends the movie with demonstrating how national duty is important by putting in a shamelessly nationalistic speech over the Star-Spangled Banner anthem, interesting. Overall 7/10